Thursday
Apr142022

IT Supplies Takes On ISA Sign Expo 2022!

ISA Sign Expo is the place to find everything you need to be successful in the sign, graphics, print and visual communications industry.
 
ISA International Sign Expo® 2022 is coming to the land of Coca-Cola, the massive Georgia Aquarium and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. It’s a new location for ISA Sign Expo, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary there. While there will be much that is different, what makes ISA Sign Expo unique will be fully present. Come prepared to see the very latest products that will build your business and make those all-important connections.
 
Exhibitors will showcase innovative products, which may be exactly what your customers are looking for—or that you can use to wow them. The education sessions will be designed to provide solutions and sparks of brilliance for the next big idea that will transform your business.
 
Registration opens a little later this year, but mark your calendars for May 4-6 and set your course for Hotlanta!
 
Why Attend?
  • Wide Format and 3D Printing 
  • Digital Signage 
  • LEDs
  • Vehicle Wrapping 
  • New Accessories 
  • And More! 
Learn From the Experts 
Industry specific education will highlight the latest in graphic design, sign code legislation, business management, sales and marketings, and more. 
 
Have FUN!
Forget about 2021, Unwind and Network! 
 
 
 
Thinking of attending ISA in Atlanta this year? Here’s a link to FREE tickets to the show. Under “Attendee Registration” use code 10085 for your FREE pass!
 
Come visit us at Booth # 3701
 

Click here for the Event Schedule 

Tuesday
Apr052022

Do You Need a Densitometer or a Spectrophotometer?

Looking for the best color measurement device for your pressroom?

 
To help you decide, let’s look at the three levels of process control to evaluate printed color. 
  1. The most basic level is a visual comparison. However, since color vision is subjective, visual evaluation can lead to misjudgments, especially between press operators and under a different light source. If accurate color is important, visual evaluation will not be enough. You need to use a device.
  2. The next level of process control is densitometry. As the name suggests, densitometers do not measure color. They measure reflection - a narrow view of reflected light that represents how much ink is laid down in a particular area. 
  3. The highest level of process control is spectrophotometry. A spectrophotometer captures a spectral fingerprint of the color, which can be used to trace all of the attributes splitting up the light evenly across the spectrum.

Read on for a closer look at the differences between a densitometer and a spectrophotometer to help you decide which is best for your printing process.

 
Caption: The illustration above doesn’t show a comparison of two colors; it shows the same color under different M conditions. It does show the kind of data available from spectral data. You can see here that the density values are almost identical for any M condition but clearly there is a difference in color based on paper OBAs.
 
What is a Densitometer?
A pressroom densitometer is designed to calculate density values for standard cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks through a fixed response of filters. This type of reflection densitometer can tell you if you’re getting the right amount of ink film thickness on the paper and maintaining it throughout the run. From ink density, you can calculate attributes like Tone Value (also called dot and dot area), Tone Value Increase (also called TVI or dot gain), print contrast, and trap.
 
Back when densitometry was the only process control available, status T and status E densitometers were geared toward CMYK inks. Some printing card companies used status A densitometers for reflection photographic prints because they were using inks more similar to photographic dyes than traditional CMYK printing inks.
 
 
 
Caption: The illustration above show the fixed curves used for the status T filters. A spectrodensitometer can calculated these but also fills in the gaps along and between the filter curves
 
This also explains one of the main challenges with densitometers. They are geared to capture the filter response for standard CMYK inks, but the filter response, along with its detector, is not a very good predictor of status density for other inks.
 
The standard for densitometry was rewritten around 15 years ago to base status densities around spectral values. Most of the print metrics, especially print contrast and trapping, have a more modern metric using spectral or colorimetric data.
 
Recently, the industry has transitioned from a density-based TVI to colorimetric or spectral based tone calculation. That’s because TVI from a densitometer doesn’t work well for spot colors and often gives numbers that don’t agree with the human eye even for standard CMYK inks. Spectral or colorimetric data can do a tone value evaluation that will match what you see visually and in your design programs.
 

When to Use a Densitometer

Today, densitometer calculations are being superseded by spectral data metrics. Most densitometers are spectrodensitometers, although there are still a few filter based and LED based densitometers in use. A spectrodenstometer is likely to provide a better implementation of status density than a filtered or LED densitometer. 
 
That being said, a densitometer is still a useful tool for process control if all you’re doing is CMYK printing with standard ISO inks. Learn more in our Measuring Density with a Densitometer blog.
 

What is a Spectrophotometer?

A spectrophotometer captures the spectral reflectance - sometimes called the fingerprint - of a color. Using this fingerprint, you can trace and compare attributes by measuring color in nanometers evenly across all wavelengths of light. This type of measurement is necessary to compare a printed sample against a standard to evaluate whether color is within tolerance. 
 
Contrary to visual evaluation, a spectrophotometer isn’t tricked by surrounding colors and doesn’t have a predetermined idea of the ink or paper color. It evaluates color in a completely neutral way under different observers and light sources across the visible spectrum, which is ideal for evaluating custom and spot colors using L*a*b* and LCH.
 
Caption: A spectrophotometer’s view of the spectrum – no predetermined fixed curves.
 
Although you can use a spectrophotometer to measure density by evaluating narrow bands for a particular color and picking the highest, but not many printers work that way today. It’s more effective to evaluate variations in measurement data for the complete color than just solid densities. 
 
This image shows an example of a spot color measured with density and colorimetry values. Notice the density response for the primary filter is essentially the same. The colorimetery shows the same thing that your eyes do, the colors are not the same! A densitometer can mislead you into thinking you’re printing the right color, but you won’t be misled by a spectrophotometer. 
 
 
Caption: Colorimetry will tell you about the real color appearance. If you are just looking at the primary density filter you would think the color is the same! 
 
Learn more about using spectrophotometers for print in these blogs and resources: 

When to Use a Spectrophotometer  

If you’re printing special process colors, such as Extended Color Gamut (ECG) or spot colors, a traditional densitometer won’t work well because these inks don’t fit into the sweet spot for status density.
If you want to print to newer ISO standards, you need to use a spectrophotometer. Read our Staying Current with Standards in Print and Packaging blog for more information.  
 
You also need a spectrophotometer to perform to G7 specifications. G7 is a widely-used process that can help you achieve repeatable, consistent control of tone reproduction and ensuring that your process colors are neutral and balanced, improving gray balance, and stabilizing color. Learn more in our What is Idealliance G7 Master Qualification blog.  
 
 
Still have questions regarding X-Rite Color Solutions?   
 
Call 1-800-771-9665 and ask to talk to one of our commercial sales specialists or visit our website https://www.itsupplies.com.
 
IT Supplies is your single source solution for everything relating to the perfect print.  We represent some of the top manufacturers in the industry.  Our full lineup includes Eco Solvent, Latex, Flat Bed, and Aqueous printers by EPSON, HP, and Canon.  We also carry a large selection of Dye-Sublimation and DTG Printers by both EPSON and HP.  Visit us at www.itsupplies.com 
Wednesday
Mar302022

Got a flat heat press? Make money with it!

 
Over the last year, people got pretty crafty at home doing things like baking bread, sewing masks, making hand sanitizer, and bartering for toilet paper. Not surprisingly, with their newfound time in isolation during quarantine, many people started learning new things online (and binge watching Netflix). If you learned how to personalize and sublimate masks, you might be wondering what more can you do with your sublimation system. What to do now that the mask frenzy has moved on. Our suggestion? Take that press, make more products, and grow your business! 
 
Unisub and ChromaLuxe are the leading brands of hard-surface sublimatable products within the United States and abroad. The process to sublimate their products is nearly the same as sublimating fabrics, so there’s no lengthy learning curve. By offering customers the ability to customize a variety of photo gifts and personalized products using vibrant, full color graphics on a myriad of surfaces that range from plaques, to key chains, to coasters, they’ve built a portfolio of success.   
 
Here are some bestselling Unisub and ChromaLuxe products you can make: 

You can purchase blanks and sublimation supplies from the IT Supplies website and learn how to sublimate Unisub and ChromaLuxe blanks from www.starttosublimate.com, a free website packed full of helpful resources and how-tos. You can also check out our Youtube channel for new products, tutorials & more.

So don’t let that heat press sit around collecting dust in your basement – put it to work and grow your business with hundreds of products you can sublimate and sell! 

ARTICLE EXCERPT

Still have questions regarding dye-sublimation products?  

Call 1-800-771-9665 and ask to talk to one of our commercial sales specialists or visit our website https://www.itsupplies.com.

IT Supplies is your single source solution for everything relating to the perfect print.  We represent some of the top manufacturers in the industry.  Our full lineup includes Eco Solvent, Latex, Flat Bed, and Aqueous printers by EPSON, HP, and Canon.  We also carry a large selection of Dye-Sublimation and DTG Printers by both EPSON and HP.  Visit us at www.itsupplies.com 

Wednesday
Mar232022

EFI™ Fiery® Prep-it™ Print-For-Cut Software Generates Significant Time And Media Savings For Large Format Digital Printers

Image Courtesy of EFI 
 
March, 2022 : FREMONT, California — Display graphics print providers now have a powerful solution for saving media and reducing prep time with newly available EFI™ Fiery® Prep-it™ true-shape nesting and cut-preparation software. 

The newly available solution from Electronics For Imaging, Inc. connects to any digital front end (DFE) – including full integration with EFI Fiery proServer and Fiery XF DFEs – to increase the profitability of cut jobs printed on wide- to superwide-format inkjet printers.
 

Media And Time Savings

 
This easy-to-use, powerful offering can reduce the time needed to manually nest jobs by up to 90%. 
It also reduces nesting time by more than 10% compared with other leading true-shape nesting offerings. 
 
Plus, Fiery Prep-it software saves users more than 10% in media usage compared with other, similar products thanks to its highly effective nesting algorithms. 
 
Display graphics businesses that currently use rectangular in-RIP nesting will find that Fiery Prep-it software reduces media consumption to a fraction of what they use today.
 
On media savings alone, this affordable, effective software can pay for itself in as little as 2 months. 
 
“Efficient, accurate, and fast true-shape nesting for cut jobs such as stickers, road signs, and more, are three critical capabilities for a display graphics workflow product,” said John Henze, vice president of sales and marketing, EFI Fiery. “Fiery Prep-it software excels over other products because it delivers all three at an affordable price, saving our customers hours of prepress time while reducing material usage.”
 

Automated Cut Job Preparation

 
Fiery Prep-it software can take jobs destined for cutting from different sources and prepare them quickly and correctly for print-then-cut production. 
 
This can be done manually or semiautomatically with the use of pre-sets and hot folders. Jobs that arrive to production from prepress workflow, web-to-print, or MIS solutions can take advantage of the capability to apply every available Prep-it cut setting in a full “hands-off” job production mode. 
Minimal-touch-point production reduces the potential for expensive human error and frees up operators for other important tasks such as graphic design or production planning.
 
Decreasing preparation time, media consumption and touchpoints on cut jobs is the key to making customers’ operations more profitable.
 

Economic Advantages For All Display Graphics Businesses

 
Whether print businesses do their nesting layouts manually in Adobe® Illustrator®, or use an existing nesting solution, switching to Fiery Prep-it software offers compelling productivity gains and media savings. 
 
It has some of the best true-shape nesting technology on the market, including its 1° increment rotation capability and accurate double-sided nesting, giving users the ability to reduce media waste and turnaround time even further.
 
On top of its ability to generate at least 10% in media savings, Fiery Prep-it also increases profitability by:
  • Giving companies the ability to win more tight-deadline business by preparing cut jobs in a fraction of the time required with manual nesting methods;
  • Reducing errors and expensive rework due to minimal touchpoints in job production with hot folders and automation capabilities;
  • Removing production bottlenecks with increased utilization of existing printing and cutting equipment.
The software integrates with EFI Fiery proServer and Fiery XF DFE print servers, providing access to an additional 1,300+ cutter and router types on top of built-in Prep-it connectivity options. 
 
The software can also connect to any RIP or DFE that accepts PDF files, serving as a central hub for cut job preparation.
 

About EFI 

 
EFI™ is a global technology company, based in Silicon Valley, and is leading the worldwide transformation from analog to digital imaging. 
 
We are passionate about fueling customer success with products that increase competitiveness and boost productivity. 
 
To do that, we develop breakthrough technologies for the manufacturing of signage, packaging, textiles, ceramic tiles, building materials and personalized documents, with a wide range of printers, inks, digital front ends, and a comprehensive business and production workflow suite that transforms and streamlines the entire production process. 
 
 
 

 
Still have questions regarding EFI products?  
 
Call 1-800-771-9665 and ask to talk to one of our commercial sales specialists or visit our website https://www.itsupplies.com.
 
IT Supplies is your single source solution for everything relating to the perfect print.  We represent some of the top manufacturers in the industry.  Our full lineup includes Eco Solvent, Latex, Flat Bed, and Aqueous printers by EPSON, HP, and Canon.  We also carry a large selection of Dye-Sublimation and DTG Printers by both EPSON and HP.  Visit us at www.itsupplies.com 
Friday
Mar182022

DISCOVER HOW WHITE INK TECHNOLOGY FROM HP IS PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF INTERIOR DECOR TO CREATE NEW APPLICATIONS FOR PRINT

 
“The flexibility and adaptability of the HP Latex series delivers a powerful production tool, with the addition of white – multiple applications are now possible across multiple industries: Signage and graphics, window displays, wallpapers, vinyl, glass, wood, aluminum, cork and even printed leather to name just a few options”.
 
NEW TECHNOLOGIES ARE PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF INTERIOR DÉCOR AS THE MARKET SECTOR EXPANDS TOWARDS CUSTOMIZED INTERIORS. 
 
What was once a sector that relied on stock is now a highly creative, innovative market where new design and product applications abound. The recent webinar from HP titled: “How HP white ink can give your Interior Décor business a competitive edge” brought together a number of industry specialists from a wide variety of businesses.
 
All of which were exploring new applications and attracting new business with the HP Latex 700W and 800W series. The flexibility and adaptability of the HP Latex series delivers a powerful production tool, with the addition of white – multiple applications are now possible across multiple industries: Signage and graphics, window displays, wallpapers, vinyl, glass, wood, aluminum, cork and even printed leather to name just a few options. 
 
Importantly when using the white ink as a base layer, the operator can print onto coloured print materials. When used on clear media – the white ink can be applied in several ways to create dramatic effects and stunning visual graphics. Duplex printing in multiple formats is possible across many, many surfaces. As such it’s the perfect partner for any printer or specialist that services the interior design and décor industry - where creativity is a key driver for on-demand design led products.
 
A number of industry practitioners from across Europe joined the webinar to share their inspiring case studies and their knowledge and practical experiences. Representing a huge variety of high value applications for public spaces, like offices, hotels, retail food environments and other décor applications. 
 
All guest speakers have successfully expanded their businesses and product portfolio’s using HP technologies. 
 
Claude Patek a HP customer based in Germany commented “We are full-service provider specializing in the design and signage industry for about 30 years producing a large format signage, and materials from window signage to vehicle graphics. We also produce posters, street signage, light boxes, etc. Having recently purchased the HP Latex 700W we have further expanded our portfolio into the interior decoration market, and they are very proud of our achievements.”
 
Following on from a number of interesting case studies, the webinar also offers an insightful demonstration live from the HP demonstration suite. It’s during this demonstration that you can really see first-hand just how many opportunities the HP Latex 700 and 800W equipment offers the printed decor industry. 
 
Daniel Bellotti explained “The great thing about HP technology when it comes to printing with white, is when you compare it to the competitors and what they have on offer. We have a technology which basically looks after itself.”

“In terms of maintenance, we have a rich circulation of the white ink that happens continually, from the ink cartridges on one end of the printer all the way to our print heads and back to the ink cartridge. Ensuring movement of the white ink (which is a heavier pigment and can sediment if you don’t have movement) is apparent continuously. 

NOW WHAT BENEFIT DOES THIS HAVE? 

“Using a closed loop system ensures maximum efficiency and no loss of time during the printing process. Add to this easy machine maintenance to guarantee optimum image quality.” 
 
Consistent quality is delivered by the HP Thermal Inkjet printheads ensuring very high resolution, even when printing with white tick. They are a native 1200 DPI dots per inch. And we can produce amazing images.” Daniel’s passion and enthusiasm for HP technologies and their printed applications is self-evident in this engaging and informative demonstration, a must watch for anybody interested in printed Interior decoration.
 
To watch the replay of the recent webinar from HP titled: “How HP white ink can give your business a competitive edge” click here.

 

WANT TO KNOW HOW WHITE INK CAN GIVE YOUR BUSINESS A COMPETITIVE EDGE? 

Download the free eBook here and learn more about the three main reasons why white ink matters.
 
 
Still have questions regarding HP White Ink? Call 1-800-771-9665 and ask to talk to one of our commercial sales specialists or visit our website https://www.itsupplies.com.
 
IT Supplies is your single source solution for everything relating to the perfect print. We represent some of the top manufacturers in the industry. Our full lineup includes Eco Solvent, Latex, Flat Bed, and Aqueous printers by EPSON, HP, and Canon. We also carry a large selection of Dye-Sublimation and DTG Printers by both EPSON and HP. Visit us at www.itsupplies.com